# Anyone ever heard of MarkMonitor? Googlecode.com? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 8, 2013, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-heard-of-markmonitor-googlecode-com/665668 "2013-08-08T02:45:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-heard-of-markmonitor-googlecode-com/665668/1 "2013-08-08T02:45:59Z")
I was trying to find a website associated with a textbook (the subject of a rant in the Pit a few weeks back). One link found through Google mentioned it, I clicked the link - and found that it contained the book itself, in PDF. Now, I know better than to go to a honeypot site (I hope!!) and I’m not into pirating books… but the site is [googlecode.com](http://googlecode.com). A quick search said that was a Gogle site - but a quick whois lookup shows it’s US-owned, registrar links it to MarkMonitor Incorporated, which seems to be a firm that specializes in brand protection, antipiracy, antifraud… in short, NOT something I’d expect to be hosting what is not likely to be a legal copy of a textbook. But typing in the URL [googlecode.com](http://googlecode.com) gets me to [code.google.com](http://code.google.com). Typing in MORE of the URL gets me to some kind of project page, again at [code.google.com](http://code.google.com). So - what the heck is going on here? Of note: the book in question is one that I already own legally (bought the dead tree and the online access even, as crappy as THAT is) so I don’t have any moral qualms about finding the download. But it’s just weird as hell to seemingly find this at a Google-owned (or MarkMonitor-owned, who is owned by Reuters) site. ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-heard-of-markmonitor-googlecode-com/665668/2 "2013-08-08T03:40:15Z")
It’s likely that [googlecode.com](http://googlecode.com) was initially registered by a domain squatter, and Google used Markmonitor to help them take it over due to the obvious trademark violation. [code.google.com](http://code.google.com) is a legit Google site intended for hosting open source projects. But bad guys do sometimes use it to host spam, porn, pirated files and so on - until Google finds and removes it. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-heard-of-markmonitor-googlecode-com/665668/3 "2013-08-08T03:54:58Z")
> [@tellyworth](#): > > It’s likely that [googlecode.com](http://googlecode.com) was initially registered by a domain squatter, and Google used Markmonitor to help them take it over due to the obvious trademark violation. > > [code.google.com](http://code.google.com) is a legit Google site intended for hosting open source projects. But bad guys do sometimes use it to host spam, porn, pirated files and so on - until Google finds and removes it. Thanks - that makes sense. The highest-level of the URL (_somethingorother_ dot googlecode dot com) does seem to be some kind of open source project. I wonder if I should report 'em? ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-heard-of-markmonitor-googlecode-com/665668/4 "2013-08-08T04:05:22Z")
If you PM me the link I may be able to do something about it.